What is Learning and Where Does it Happen?

What is Learning?

When we talk about learning, we are
talking about an activity and experience that involves the whole student, that leads to significant changes in who we are and
how we experience the world, and which happens in numerous different places and
times during the college experience. Learning is “a comprehensive, holistic,
transformative activity that integrates academic learning and student development”
(Learning Reconsidered, 2004, p. 6). Learning
that is transformative changes how we learn—it is not a matter of
information exchange. It is not a transaction of knowledge from one entity to
another—it is a change, a transformation in how
we understand and engage the world around us. This is a key concept as we
consider the idea of learning as it relates to our students, to the work we do,
and also to ourselves as we engage in our work.

Where Learning Happens…

Learning and development happen in
many situations throughout a college campus. Those spaces include academic
spaces like labs, rehearsals, seminars, and discussions. But because learning
involves the whole student and their growth and development, learning also
occurs all over campus—in student groups, in dining halls, residence hall
rooms, in community service, and countless more places.

Students experience college, and their
learning during college, as an interconnected system of interactions,
experiences, and environments. This system—which is really a student’s life,
includes all kinds of contexts and experiences, some of which are designed by
the institution and many that are not. These experiences all constitute a
student’s learning over time—it spans the different areas of the institution
and the many different areas of each student’s life. These are “students’
affairs,” if you will. Moreover, students experience this learning and growth
along multiple, overlapping dimensions: cognitive, emotional, interpersonal.

But how do we approach students’
affairs, and their learning and growth in multiple dimensions? Generally, the institution
is divided into Student Affairs and Academic Affairs and is then further siloed
into hierarchical structures that address specific aspects of the students’
educational experience. For the most part, we think of the cognitive aspects of
happening in academic affairs, and the emotional aspects happening in student
affairs. There are expectations for interpersonal learning in both areas,
though mostly in student affairs. Also, the interpersonal and emotional
learning and growth is often not thought of as learning at all, but as an
add-on to cognitive learning.

Returning to our definition of
Learning…

Learning is comprehensive and
holistic—that means that it involves the student’s whole life and doesn’t
happen according to the hierarchical and siloed paths of higher education
organizations. It happens according to the complex, interconnected experiences
of their lives.

It is transformative—it’s not
information transfer, it’s a process that changes and transforms you. Learning
integrates academic learning and student development. The cognitive, emotional,
and interpersonal domains of learning are all
learning. They are also all interrelated, can’t happen without each other, and
happen in all different types of settings. Emotional and interpersonal growth
are not the “back-up dancers” to Cognitive learning. All of these things
together are learning. Finally, this learning happens in the types of settings
that are the purview of student affairs organizations.

The idea that meaningful learning and
development happens throughout a college campus means that we, in student
affairs, have a significant impact on
students’ learning and a responsibility to provide intentional opportunities
for students to learn through involvement with us. Realizing this
responsibility and opportunity is central to developing a curricular approach.